Fake Face
by Lyra Anna Ly
Summary: Lavender Mina is the kind of person Emma never likes dealing with. Has she got a bit of Abigail in her blood, or is she just that much of a Fake Face. Part of the Emma Collection (Emmaverse), an AI Football GGO Fanfic. Rated T for cursing.


**Fake Face**

**Emmaverse Fanfiction**

Lavender Mina was not, in any way, a good person. Emma could see that from the moment the blonde attached herself to the younger girls cousin, blue eyes shining as she had pushed the girl back subtly. Karl hadn't noticed, of course, but Emma wasn't one to speak up much until she felt truly threatened. She was, fortunately, very good at reading people and though this girl may not have been great, but she brushed it off as an accident. It's not what her gut told her, but what she assured herself of.

If Lavender made Karl happy, then so be it. She could suck it up, bite her tounge, she'd done it on more than one occasion before.

But it never. STOPPED.

At first she could deal with it, Lavender always bumping into her, moving her way in between her cousin and her. Timmy tried to reassure her once, when she had asked him if Lavender did the same when he was with the team.

"She's just really big on physical contact?" Timmy had said, but his voice didn't sound all to sure. Her cousins oldest friend had rubbed the back of his neck, and Emma couldn't tell if he was nervous or just thinking again. "Actually, have you talked to anyone else about it?"

She hadn't. It wasn't really her place anyways, so she let it drop for a while, but then it seemed to get worse. Lavender didn't just stop at inserting herself between them anymore, the girl would not be satisfied by butting in on their conversations, or hanging onto her cousin. Once she was there, every conversation dropped in favor of her talking about whatever she needed to say. Even if Emma didn't want to hear it, it wouldn't have mattered, as a few seconds later, Lavender would be pulling her cousin away to do whatever it was she wanted to do.

So Emma turned to the entire team, finally accepting Cat's request for her to come see what practice was like. The girl had been ecstatic, and they had shown up together the next day. When the girl at question showed up again, and stole her cousin away immediately after practice, she addressed them all.

"So, is that normal after practice?" She asked, smile dropping as she heard Lavenders high pitched laugh fade down the hall. Emma turned to the other members of team barefoot to see there own confusion. "I'm gonna go with no then?"

"No… Has that been happening for a long time?" Issac had asked, turning to the little heiress, who shrugged and stood from her watching place.

"For a while now. She's been clingy since day one, but the whole kidnapping thing is relatively new."

"How new is relatively?" Cat asked, also turning back to her friend, who shrugged and shared a glance with Timmy.

"Since then?" Timmy asked, looking quite a bit more panicked. Emma sighed, counting up in her head. 

"About two weeks after it." She answered. "But yeah."

"Emma, we had that discussion two months ago." Timmy commented, looking at her as if she had lost her mind.

"Well there you go then. Not that long ago." Emma stated, grabbing the bag she had sat next to her.

"Wait, you mean this has been happening for a month and a half?" Issac asked, eyes widening. Emberlyn couldn't see why it was that big a deal, it wasn't like her cousin couldn't handle himself, he wasn't a baby. She could trust that he wouldn't do anything to intentionally hurt her.

"Yeah, but it's not really that big a deal." Emma confirmed, walking out the door. "See you guys soon."

It wasn't until three days later that she realised she had never actually had the great displeasure of talking to Lavender one-on-one. Team Barefoot was set to play a match, and she had claimed her normal seat up front with Betty and Ball, knowing that Cat would be up playing today. Sophie had come to join them in cheering the team on as well, and Emma happily invited the girl to take part with the three of them.

Before the game actually started, Sophie and Emma had managed to get themselves into a lengthy and quite passionate chat about the future of GGO, and Emma casually mentioned that she was friends with the family that helped fund it from the beginning, inviting Sophie to come meet them sometime.

"SERIOUSLY!?" Sophie had cried, and Emma laughed, nodding her head to show that she was.

"Definitely." She answered once she had regained control of herself. "I'm positive Maya would love to meet you too."

"Oh my God!" Sophie had almost screamed, right as the teams started coming out, and the croud gave a mighty cheer for the controllers.

"Can they get any louder?" Emma heard a disgusted voice say from behind her. "Honestly, what's the deal with all the screaming, they're close enough to hear thousands of people saying 'Go Team!'. What the hell."

Emma and Sophie both looked towards the speaker, Lavender having come to stand on the other side of the youngest. "If you don't like it, you could always go home?"

Sophie had been the one to suggest it, and by the way the girl was glaring, Emma could tell that there was some bad blood between the two already.

"No way. Karl wanted me to come, so I'm here. Glad I showed too, ain't it runt." Lavender commented, smirking at Emma.

Okay then, she was that bad a person.

"I'm sorry, but if you are referring to me, then I must ask that you use my real name." Emma said, tone dry and unfriendly. Now though, now it seemed like the adults were paying attention.

"Emma!" Betty had exclaimed. "Now I am surprised at you. Please don't be rude to the crowd. I'm so sorry, she's not usually like this."

Emma almost expected for the girl to make another snarky comment, but that wasn't even close to what happened. Lavender smiled at Betty and Ball, changing her tone almost immediately.

"It's no problem, really. Honestly, it was my fault for not talking to my boyfriends little cousin sooner. Don't worry though, we're just getting to know each other a bit."

"Oh, you're the girl Karl's been talking about." Ball exclaimed. "Now Emma, you can't be acting like that to your cousin's girl, alright. If I hear that tone again, I'll have to tell him that you've gone and gotten rude with her without cause."

While he couldn't say this was as rare as it should be, Emberlyn did honestly feel a bit hurt that Ball and Betty seemed to be taking Lavenders side. From her parents, she could deal with it all in step and never break from her path. This was a bit different though, this one hurt.

"Yes Mr. Ball." Emma said, head down as she and Sophie shared a look. 

"Good. Now, they're about to start." Ball said, getting back into the game.

"Is it?" Lavender asked, lowering her voice. "You'll need to be a bit quieter than that, Little Em." She commented, using the name that her cousin had given her.

"Don't call me that." Emma growled out, her own voice low and dangerous as her hands fisted tightly on the rail preventing people from going onto the stage.

"Why not, brat?" Lavender hissed, and Emberlyn thought that she might talk the way people imagined a snake would. Either way, this showed only one thing. Lavender was nothing but a stuck up, as Maria would sometimes call people like her, Fake-face. "Is it cause that's what your cousin calls you when he's gotta babysit."

"No, it's because when it comes from your mouth it makes me want to vomit." Emma retorted smoothly. Perhaps she really did have a nasty habit of throwing insults back at people that reminded her of Abigail.

"Oh that's rich, coming from little miss I-get-everything."

"And there is the proof that you do not, in fact, know me. I do not get everything I want, contrary to popular belief. Honestly though, I deal with people like you at least once a year, I was hoping to keep it to that maximum."

"People like me?"

"People who think they're better than everyone else just because they can manage to do one thing that others can't" Emma answered. "Though I guess the other one is at least closer to being able to insult me than you are."

"Listen here you little bitch," Lavender seethed, "just because he's your cousin doesn't mean that you get to be little miss first, got it? You aren't shit just because he's your family, and there ain't a single thing you can do that I won't find out about."

"And what exactly would I be doing?" Emma asked thinking, not for the first time, that this girl was absolutely crazy.

"Shut-up." Lavender hissed. "You know exactly what I mean. Stay away from him, got it?"

"What?" Emma asked, completely lost at this point. "Sophie?"

But the girl wan't paying attention it seemed, she was looking down at the game. Emma couldn't tell she was watching very closely from the corner of her eyes, and neither could see the little recording device she had tucked somewhat in her pocket.

"Huh?" Sophie asked, pretending to just look over as Emma called her.

"Did you hear any of that?" Emma asked, hoping that she did.

"Any of what?" Sophie asked, turning off the device and pushing it further into her bag. She would need to show the team later, but for now she needed to stay with Emma. 

"Nevermind." Emma commented dejectedly, maneuvering her way around the girl. "I'm gonna go get some snacks and some air, want anything?"

"A bag of potato chips and a bottle of water?" Sophie asked, and Emma nodded before continuing.

"Aren't you going to ask Lavender?" Betty called after her, and Emberlyn turned for a second to look at the adults, then to said girl.

"No, I know what she wants." Emberlyn said, understanding dawning on her. If Lavender felt confident enough to act like that, then maybe it _was_ about time she talked to her cousin. She pulled a bright smile, the kind that her parents had taught her to use when greeting guests, especially of a higher class. "Don't worry Ms. Betty, I told you I'd be nice. I just already know that what she wants isn't food, it's my cousins game to be over so she can tell him how great he did."

"Awe, how sweet!" Betty exclaimed. "Now see, I told you it was better to be nice."

Emma couldn't say that she agreed, she couldn't see any instance in which that conversation was 'better', as Betty had put it. One fake face deserves another though.


End file.
